Does the nationalization of party systems affect the composition of public spending?

Do political institutions shape the structure of public spending? Based on a sample of elections in eighteen Western European countries over the period 1970–1998, this paper shows that governments’ margin of maneuverability to design and implement fiscal policies depends on the level of party linkage or the nationalization of party systems, defined as the extent to which parties are uniformly successful in winning votes across districts. The mechanism behind this argument is that in weakly nationalized countries there are additional transaction costs to change the structure of budgets as a consequence of the survival of local parties and interests. Therefore, the composition of public spending is more rigid here than in highly nationalized countries.     

Does public/private status affect the level of earnings management in code-law contexts outside the United States? A study based on the Spanish case

This study analyzes the difference in earnings quality between public and private firms in Spain. We go beyond the income-increasing incentives on which the United States debate has been exclusively based and build on previous Belgian results by considering institutional differences and differences in the type of blockholder and by proposing a new income-smoothing methodology.No significant differences are found for income smoothers and increasers except for those included in the Spanish Ibex 35 index, which show lower manipulation levels due to the predominance of supervision over market pressure. Higher levels of income decreasing are found for private companies. We attribute this to the expropriation practiced by public firms through real activities in their relationship with the banks, which leads to a lower need to engage in downwards manipulation.     

Examining the Relationships between Capital,Risk and Efficiency in European Banking

This paper analyses the relationship between capital, risk and efficiency for a large sample of European banks between 1992 and 2000. In contrast to the established US evidence we do not find a positive relationship between inefficiency and bank risk‐taking. Inefficient European banks appear to hold more capital and take on less risk. Empirical evidence is found showing the positive relationship between risk on the level of capital (and liquidity), possibly indicating regulators' preference for capital as a mean of restricting risk‐taking activities. We also find evidence that the financial strength of the corporate sector has a positive influence in reducing bank risk‐taking and capital levels. There are no major differences in the relationships between capital, risk and efficiency for commercial and savings banks although there are for co‐operative banks. In the case of co‐operative banks we do find that capital levels are inversely related to risks and we find that inefficient banks hold lower levels of capital. Some of these relationships also vary depending on whether banks are among the most or least efficient operators.     

Maize and the Free Trade Agreement between Mexico and the United States

Setting the price of maize in rural Mexico above the world priceis inefficient and likely to have negative distributional effectsbecause many subsistence producers, and all landless workers,are net buyers; in fact it screens out the relatively poor ratherthan the relatively rich. The policy objective, therefore, shouldbe to move toward free trade. This would yield large gains inefficiency. The Free Trade Agreement provides an ideal opportunity to pursuethis objective. It will provide freer entrance into the UnitedStates for other agricultural products as well as a broad rangeof manufactured products. Insuring secure and sustained accessfor labor-intensive agricultural and manufactured products canhelp ease the impact on the labor market of a transition awayfrom subsistence maize cultivation.     

Residential Choice, Mobility, and the Labor Market

There is substantial evidence suggesting that the process of suburbanization creates new job opportunities that are not equally exploited by all workers. In order to explain this phenomenon, a simple model is developed which incorporates borrowing constraints as an important restriction on moving decisions, obstructing the necessary labor flows between jurisdictions required to equalize (net) wages. In essence, people who cannot borrow will be restricted in terms of their capability of changing residence location and therefore will have limited possibilities of working in distant labor markets, or they will be subject to excessive commuting. Furthermore, the labor allocation induced by households' behavior facing these constraints affects consumer welfare, production, and producers' profits. The outcomes with perfect credit markets and with borrowing restrictions are calculated and the economic welfare levels are compared. As wages are flexible, they adjust to reflect the relative scarcity of workers present in each jurisdiction. Consequently, some of the negative effects of the borrowing constraints are compensated, so the outcomes cannot be easily compared. Some numerical examples are constructed to have an idea of the possible outcomes under different conditions. Finally, it is found that allowing for moving cost deductions from taxable income may help to alleviate the problem.     

Are covered bonds a substitute for mortgage-backed securities?

Given the problems in the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) market during the financial crisis, some suggest that covered bonds (CB) might be a substitute for MBS. This could lead to a number of policy alternatives in countries where regulation and business have been mainly leaning to one of these types of securities. Examining the use of CB and MBS in the U.S. and Europe, we find that the two often seem to be used for different purposes. Banks are more likely to use CB when they have liquidity needs while MBS are associated with risk management and agency problems. Introducing MBS to markets where only CB are common or CB to markets where only MBS are common could have large effects.     

The determinants of bank margins in European banking

Most of the theoretical and empirical literature on bank margins has dealt solely with interest margins. Applying the seminal Ho–Saunders model (JFQA, 1981) to a multi-output framework, we show that the relationship between bank margins and market power varies significantly across bank specializations. In this context, European banks are a better laboratory than US banks, since they have generally enjoyed a more flexible regulatory environment in which to provide a wider range of services. Using accounting margins and New Empirical Industrial Organization margins, we find that market power increases as output becomes more diversified towards non-traditional activities in European banking.     

Do cross-country differences in bank efficiency support a policy of “national champions”?

As banking consolidation proceeds and Europe moves toward a single market, cross-country differences in banking efficiency can affect the future competitive position of a country’s financial market, helping to determine which European money centers may expand or contract. Looking at large banks across 10 countries, we find they are roughly equally efficient after controlling for differences in business environment, banking costs, and bank productivity. As no country seems to have a strong efficiency advantage, it seems likely that state efforts to promote “national champions” through favorable mergers which expand scale and market share may determine the outcome.     

Bank-lending channel and non-financial firms: evidence for Spain

During the 1990s, liquidity was relatively abundant in the European Union and the European central banks mostly developed a relaxed monetary policy. While the bank lending channel view of the monetary policy would have suggested an increase in loans to firms in this context, the demand for bank corporate lending, however, slowed down, suggesting that monetary policy was not effective in this area. This article analyses how the financing behaviour of Spanish firms during 1992–2003 is related to their liquidity holdings and how this relationship may affect the effectiveness of the bank lending channel. The empirical evidence provided suggests that firms holding high liquid assets may replace bank lending by other sources of financing. Hence, higher liquidity holdings allow firms to invest in attractive investment projects in the event of a tightening of monetary conditions.